I don't hate Subarus, even after all the malicious, vindictive E36 M3 that they've done to me. I would approach any one of them with the assumption that I need to pull the engine and replace the head gaskets, regardless of mileage.
But I won't mess with rust.
How far south do you need to go to find a rust free, second generation Subaru Forester?
Far enough to close that tab in my browser because I wouldn't own a Subaru.
Anyway, generally it would be around the Mason-Dixon Line from what I remember about previous discussions about finding cars without the tin worm.
Something like this:
Be careful though, there are a surprising number of northern Subarus that have migrated south with their owners in the last decade. You need to have someone you trust take a look see.
Man, I don't know what I missed that caused all the Subaru hate, they've been nothing but good to me. But, these Foresters also seem surprisingly rustproof. Know someone who has driven one since they bought it new through New York winters, never washes or cleans the outside, and it still has no signs of rust.
I don't think you can measure Subarus by their latitude. Very few were sold in the South when they were new, so very few are true Southern cars.
I've had 8 of them and all were rust free, but I also learned there just are not very many of them.
My local CL today has 604 cars for sale. 2 of them are Subarus.
Columbus GA, 9 out of 2271.
Tallahassee, 14 out of 2500+.
Macon, GA, 15 out of 2500+.
Mobile, 20 out of 2500+.
Birmingham, 59 out of 2500+.
I'd bet less than 5 of those are Foresters. Maybe zero.
Atlanta has a few, but ATL has a large population of transplants. That means the car came from the North.
In reply to NickD:
In my case, I don't like the way they sound and the fanboy-ism that surrounds them.
They just don't do anything for me and this is my personal opinion, nothing more.
If people are searching for Scooby's don't go south, go west. There area ton of them here in the PNW and Colorado and the rust issue is nearly nonexistent due to the limited use of harsh chemicals used during the winter.
General rule of thumb is on the east coast it's anywhere after Richmond Virginia, would avoid a Maryland car due to the fact they through a ton of salt, even though my protege was a nc car in the years I lived in md it is starting quite nicely in the wheel wells.
There are loads of them here in Utah. Our dry desert climate means most are rust free.
Individual merits of transient Subarus aside, in general you need to get south of Virginia if you are looking for rust-free on the east coast. MD salts the E36 M3 out of the roads and now uses that awful magnesium chloride spray too. Midway down Virginia is where I'd draw the line, just call it NC to be safe.
Charlotte nc has a lot of subaru love. I'll go inspect if you find one.
I recently purchased an 04 Forester XT and had been searching practically nationwide for it. The only "clean" cars I found were either west of the Mississippi or in Florida. I had a friend in the greater Charlotte, NC area look at two cars for me and they were both quite rusty, YMMV.
As 2002maniac pointed out, Utah and Colorado seem to be the Subaru mecca.
I received some quotes on uShip and they can deliver a car across the country for around $1200. So take that into consideration as well.
Also, on a side-note to the HG issue: Only the non-turbo cars are plagued with it. The turbo cars have a different block (or was it head?) design and they do not eat HGs.
Last but not least the South is not Rust proof. Look west son.
Only one I've seen in Gulf Coast FL came down here from NY. Rusty.
Nessumsar wrote: I recently purchased an 04 Forester XT and had been searching practically nationwide for it. The only "clean" cars I found were either west of the Mississippi or in Florida. I had a friend in the greater Charlotte, NC area look at two cars for me and they were both quite rusty, YMMV. As 2002maniac pointed out, Utah and Colorado seem to be the Subaru mecca. I received some quotes on uShip and they can deliver a car across the country for around $1200. So take that into consideration as well. Also, on a side-note to the HG issue: Only the non-turbo cars are plagued with it. The turbo cars have a different block (or was it head?) design and they do not eat HGs.
Turbo Subaru's use a multi-layer steel HG and the NA cars do not.
Bad HG in an NA - pull the heads put the MLS gasket in and you're done!!!
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